Onimusha is Capcom's first Survival Horror title for the PS2, placing gamers in the role as Samanosuke, a samurai seeking his rival Nobunaga. When the princess Yuki is captured by demons, he and his kunoichi (female ninja) ally, Kaede, go to Inabayama Castle in Mino perfecture to rescue her. They find the castle crawling with assorted demons and a dark plot involving a pact made between Nobunaga and the demons.

Gameplay:

In all basic elements, Onimusha plays just like a Resident Evil or Dino Crisis. Your character uses his sword, a bow, or a matchlock gun to kill the enemies. Character control and animation is tight and clean. A nice addition to the usual Survival Horror setup is the ability to absorb the spirits/souls of your defeated enemies and use it to "enhance" your weapons and healing herbs. This allows you to make your weapons stronger, your magic more powerful and you to be able to move the story along. Certain doors cannot be opened unless you enhance one of three magic orbs(fire, lightning, and wind) to a certain level. While there is nothing startlingly new in the way of things to do, the Gameplay is still solid and enjoyeable.

Sound:

Onimusha has a great sound setup with a gorgeous soundtrack and excellent sound effects. The options in the menu let you choose both English or Japanese language/subtitles. While the English voice-overs are well-done, they often show the tell-tale signs of a kung-fu movie.

Graphics:

With probably the best CG-rendered FMV yet to be seen, Onimusha is a graphic feast. The still backgrounds are startlingly beautiful. Items that the player can interact with have been intergrated well so as not to stick out from the still backgrounds. The character models are finely detailed and the in-game cutscenes are clean and show excellent facial expressions. The characters move and feel real.

The Bad:

With so much that's good, there really is only a few things that still seem to be fixed or just changed. First of all, there still seems to be a minor delay when walking from one static camera angle to another. When in a fight, this can throw off a player's timing. Also, some camera angles are not conducive to fighting legions of enemies safetly. Both of these have always been present in the Resident Evil series, so it's a shame that they couldn't have resolved them by now. The last item of issue involves the control. What happened to using the Analog sticks? In Onimusha, you control your characters by using the D-Pad, rather than the analog controls.

All in all, Onimusha is still an excellent game. While being fairly straight-forward in gameplay, most players will find themselves walking back and forth just to get in fights. The interface is clean and the action is quick and enjoyable. If you enjoy Resident Evil, this is a great game to get.

- - Kinderfeld